Chapter 5

After that, Sophie bought dehumidifiers, hair dryers, and desiccants, along with home-use quicklime bricks for the impending flood.

She also bought self-heating packs and insulating food boxes for a couple of hundred, to cook eggs and instant noodles with when the gas and power got cut.

On top of that, she made sure that they had enough protective clothing, including gloves, boots, and gas masks, for the acid rains, totaling twelve sets for the family, including a small set for Billy.

As a precaution, she also included fire extinguishers and fire blankets.

Sophie quickly stopped, as she had yet to pick up her priority items: medicine, meat, eggs, milk, fruits, and vegetables. But with the balance left in her account, she had to be careful with her spending tomorrow, while praying that her parents would arrive soon.

She filled in the warehouse address for all the orders she had made, and she would head over to receive everything.

She was making a mental note of what other supplies to buy and what to hold off until all known currency died, but she fell asleep before long.

The next morning, Sophie was rudely woken up by a barrage of calls, her brow creasing at the list of unfamiliar numbers.

That was when another came, and she answered.

Yorick's furious voice could be heard right then. "Sophie, why the hell did you block me—"

Sophie hung up, not bothered to listen, and blocked the number.

Tapping into her social media app, she posted the video she had recorded of Yorick and Susan the night before in every group, including the ones for the undergraduate council, the one for their mutual college clubs, and friend groups.

She had also compiled ledgers of every expense he made with her money, especially the trip to Southport and the platinum pendant, and all the recordings of the times he had sweet-talked her and made empty promises to pay everything back.

Combining everything into a single file, she posted it everywhere too, and then privately submitted a leave of absence request application to her faculty advisor.

That should keep Yorick and Susan busy for a while, and most importantly, it would stop them from bothering her!

After freshening up and munching on some sandwiches, Sophie returned to the agricultural market she had visited the day before.

All crops brought in were naturally freshest in the morning, and this market was the best-known agricultural center down south. With countless truckloads of fresh products delivered to the market from every corner of the nation, the volume of sales and purchases there was astonishingly high every day.

If anything, Sophie's purchases were modest, so she wasn't worried as she proceeded straight to the vegetable corner.

The void pocket didn't seem to have a plantation function—she could only store stuff. As fruits, vegetables, meat, and eggs were all consumables, Sophie decided to buy enough to last her family at least thirty years.

By the time she was done, she had spent heavily on vegetables alone, as she bought everything from starchy stuff and mountain herbs to mundane stuff like corn.

Sophie's heart was pounding even as she paid—one could really never have enough money. She had around a couple of grand in her account left, and she had yet to buy other food like fruit, meat, and dairy products!

Nonetheless, she gave the storekeeper the location of her warehouse, asking them to pack and send everything over before evening and to call her just before.

As her balance wasn't enough for much of anything at this point, she headed to a canned goods wholesaler and bought over a hundred cans of everything from meat to beans.

Just as she was loading everything into the van, she received a call from her mother, who told her that they had just landed and would reach her apartment in an hour by taxi.

Sophie was delighted and quickly asked them to head to her location instead.

Jonah and Tina were bewildered, unsure as to what their daughter was doing at an agricultural market.

Still, they told the taxi driver to change routes immediately.

The south gate of the agricultural market faced the main road, and both sides of the road were lined with reasonably-priced restaurants.

Sophie made an order of several dishes, asking the staff to wait until everyone arrived before cooking, while she returned to her van to wait for her parents.

The agricultural market was in the suburbs close to the airport, so her parents arrived in just twenty minutes.

Seeing that her parents looked exactly as she remembered them, Sophie fought back her tears and helped them into the van.

Luckily, Sophie had put a stool at the back beforehand, creating three seats, including the front passenger seat.

Jonah and Tina exchanged looks of shock when they saw that the back seats of the van had been removed, and it was cluttered with various supplies—what on earth was their daughter planning with a van and all this stuff?!

Tina, looking worried, grabbed Sophie's hand as soon as she got in the front passenger seat, anxiously asking, "What's wrong, sweetie? You're scaring us, y'know!"

As she spoke, she studied Sophie from head to toe to see if Sophie was hurt, until her eyes widened in realization at Sophie's face. "Fi? Where did your birthmark go?"

Jonah wasn't as anxious as Tina, but he was frowning too. "Did you have surgery to remove the birthmark?"

But something felt off. Even with plastic surgery, there should be some scars on her skin, and it shouldn't look so smooth.

Sophie smiled through her tears—it had really been a while since she felt the warmth of parental concern.

Still, she turned to Jonah and began, "Dad, remember how you always told me this birthmark was actually a gift when I was little? As it turns out, that's exactly what it is!"

Both Jonah and Tina could only stare at her mystified while she wiped her tears.

Then, looking around to make sure no one was watching, she continued softly, "Now, this is the important part. You have to pay attention."

Her parents turned solemn upon seeing how serious she looked. Trading glances, they waited.

Sophie thought about it for a moment before slowly saying, "Now, watch this."

The back of the van was full of cans.

As she reached for them, she put them into her void pocket. And to her parents, it looked like the cans had disappeared into thin air!

"Fi!" Tina exclaimed in surprise, "What did you do? Is that… magic?!"

She looked around but couldn't see any place Sophie could have hidden the cans.

Sophie smiled and shook her head before reaching for her father's stool too, sending it into her void pocket as well.

Jonah was left crouching, but at that moment, he really didn't care that the stool had just disappeared and he didn't have a seat, and he simply watched calmly.

Sophie kept smiling as she then took out all the cans and the stool that she had just deposited into her void pocket.

While her parents gaped, she explained, "See? I just put all these things into my void pocket. It appeared when I woke up yesterday morning, after my birthmark disappeared. Only I can see the void pocket, and time doesn't pass for anything stored inside. Whatever I take out is in the exact condition I had put it in."

Worried her parents wouldn't believe her, she took out two plates of ravioli she had bought the previous day, which were still steaming hot, as she said, "See? I put these there yesterday. They've been in the whole time, but they're still piping hot as if they're fresh out of the kitchen. It's been a day, and they're still exactly the same as when I put them in yesterday."

Jonah and Tina were both completely flabbergasted at that point.